Contrasting quarter for Nitta rubber component units  

Tokyo – Japanese industrial rubber parts maker Nitta Corp. is sticking to its full-year sales & earnings forecasts following a mixed set of first quarter results.

For the three-month period to 30 June, Nitta posted a 2.3% drop in operating income, to Yen1,466 million (€11 million) on net sales 2.3% higher year-on-year at Yen21,029 million.

The higher revenues included increased sales in Europe, as Nitta’s overseas sales ratio grew to 31.7%, from 30.8% in the prior-year first quarter.

Belt and rubber product sales rose 28.4% in ‘Europe and the US’, helped by higher demand for belts from the logistics, textile machinery and paper converting industries.

By contrast, sales of hose and tube products fell 18.9% across the same two regions, largely due to reduced demand for ‘tubes for automobiles’ in North America.

Nitta said first quarter operating income was impacted by soaring raw material prices and SG&A expenses. It also noted an “allowance for doubtful accounts for selling agency in Russia.”

Group-wide, Nitta reported net sales of ‘belt and rubber products’ up 13.1% year-on-year to Yen6,979 million. Operating income lifted 23.7% to Yen952 million.

Nitta linked the higher earnings on ‘belt products’ to gains in the logistics and textile machinery markets, while ‘rubber products’ benefited from improved trading in machine tool and electronics parts markets. 

But contrast, ‘hose and tube’ operating income fell 54.4% to Yen251 million, on sales 2.7% lower at Yen7.927 million – as declines in the automotive and construction machinery sectors erased gains in semiconductor processing and EV production applications.

At Nitta's 'chemical industrial products' unit, operating income fell 111.2% year-on-year to a loss of Yen6 million, on sales up 1.5% to Yen1,051 million.

The reversal was linked to declines in the railway products and ‘OA equipment’ segments, which more than offset higher sales of waterproofing materials to the civil engineering market.

Nitta left its fiscal 2022 forecasts unchanged from those it announced 13 May, with sales projected to come in at Yen86,000 million, 2.7% higher than in 2021, and operating income at Yen5,300 million, 0.7% below the prior-year level.